Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security: Building, Securing, and Maintaining BSD Systems

Yanek Korff · Paco Hope · Bruce Potter

Mar 2005 · "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

About this ebook

FreeBSD and OpenBSD are increasingly gaining traction in educational institutions, non-profits, and corporations worldwide because they provide significant security advantages over Linux. Although a lot can be said for the robustness, clean organization, and stability of the BSD operating systems, security is one of the main reasons system administrators use these two platforms.There are plenty of books to help you get a FreeBSD or OpenBSD system off the ground, and all of them touch on security to some extent, usually dedicating a chapter to the subject. But, as security is commonly named as the key concern for today's system administrators, a single chapter on the subject can't provide the depth of information you need to keep your systems secure.FreeBSD and OpenBSD are rife with security "building blocks" that you can put to use, and Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security shows you how. Both operating systems have kernel options and filesystem features that go well beyond traditional Unix permissions and controls. This power and flexibility is valuable, but the colossal range of possibilities need to be tackled one step at a time. This book walks you through the installation of a hardened operating system, the installation and configuration of critical services, and ongoing maintenance of your FreeBSD and OpenBSD systems.Using an application-specific approach that builds on your existing knowledge, the book provides sound technical information on FreeBSD and Open-BSD security with plenty of real-world examples to help you configure and deploy a secure system. By imparting a solid technical foundation as well as practical know-how, it enables administrators to push their server's security to the next level. Even administrators in other environments--like Linux and Solaris--can find useful paradigms to emulate.Written by security professionals with two decades of operating system experience, Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security features broad and deep explanations of how how to secure your most critical systems. Where other books on BSD systems help you achieve functionality, this book will help you more thoroughly secure your deployments.

Ratings and reviews

Its a good book to learn about freeBsd but its bit old, talks a lot about freebsd 4.x and 5.x. I know most of the things are still same and unchanged but more things are added and updated some of the commands shown didnt even work on 9.2 release. A revised and updated version of this book will be nice and appriciable.

About the author

Yanek Korff graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the College of William and Mary and is currently a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP). Mr. Korff joined Bell Atlantic as a Systems Engineer where he played a major role in the strategy, design, and deployment of a key Northern Virginia test facility. He later joined Cigital, Inc., a software quality management company, where he played a central role in the design of their systems infrastructure. He is now an essential member of the Information Security division at America Online. During his career, Mr. Korff has been able to identify and mitigate information security risks particularly relating to host-based BSD security. By leveraging his experience, he has been able to apply security fundamentals to influence business and industry practices.

Paco Hope is a Technical Manager with Cigital. His areas of expertise software security, security testing, and casino gaming. He specializes in analyzing the security of software, software systems, and software development processes. Paco frequently speaks at conferences such as the Better Software Conference, STAR East, and STAR West. He conducts training on risk-based security testing, writing security requirements, and software security fundamentals. He can be reached at [e-mail].

Bruce Potter is a Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton. Prior to working at Booz Allen Hamilton, Bruce served as a software security consultant for Cigital in Dulles, VA. Bruce is the founder of the Shmoo Group of security professionals. His areas of expertise include wireless security, large-scale network architectures, smartcards, and promotion of secure software engineering practices. Bruce coauthored the books 802.11 Security and Mac OS X Security. He was trained in computer science at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.